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Sacred cows exist in every church, but in dying ones and those in need of replanting, they problem is exacerbated. Today we tackle how to deal with sacred cows in a replant.
Today’s Listener Question:
FROM KEVIN
The church I’m replanting has sacred cows everywhere. I know these are landmines in every church. Is there anything specific to replants in dealing with sacred cows?
Episode Highlights:
- It’s always better to identify sacred cow landmines in the church before your step on them.
- You need to genuinely try to understand why certain sacred cows exist in your church.
- Sacred cows are born when members trade their love and affection for Jesus in exchange for love and affection for pews or a parlor.
- We don’t ever want people to put their hope and trust in things that are temporal.
- Moving someone’s focus from the temporal to the eternal takes time and patience.
The five ways to deal with sacred cows in a replant are:
- Identify the sacred cows
- Make Jesus the sole object of your worship
- Help members understand that there is no joy to be found in protecting temporary and temporal things
- Understand the spiritual warfare involved with sacred cows
- Help members see that the more they will want what Jesus wants, the less they will want what they desire
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
- ChurchReplanters.com
- ChurchAnswers.com
- Replanter Assessment
- Find more resources at the Revitalize & Replant page at ThomRainer.com
Revitalize & Replant is sponsored by the North American Mission Board and ChurchReplanters.com. More than 10% of churches in North America are at risk of closing and the North American Mission Board is committed to reversing this trend by decreasing the death rate of existing churches while simultaneously increasing the birth rate of new churches. To learn more about what it means to become a replanting pastor or to explore resources for replanting and revitalization in your own church, visit ChurchReplanters.com.Submit Your Question:
Do you have a question about church revitalization or replanting for us to use on the podcast? Visit the podcast page to submit your question. If we use it on the show, you’ll get a copy of Autopsy of a Deceased Church and Reclaiming Glory.
Thom and Mark, I certainly remember Bill Easum’s now classic book on sacred cows making gourmet burgers. The whole sacred cow thing is such a burden to thousand of churches.
I was with a church one recent weekend that is what I call a “one generation church.” This is a church that is founded and lives for a generation–21+ years–on its founding vision or early membership boom. It then gets to a point that the vision is gone and the boom has busted. But they hold on the the traditions–sacred cows–they created, because they have no vision left, and they are now an overly churched culture congregation.
They do not know how to move forward. God’s church has become their church, and they must save their church rather than serving God’s church. I gave this church seven choices for their future. Now I am asking them to pick three of those choices and study them and pray about them for a period of 100 days.
We will see if they are willing to make their sacred cows into gourmet burgers. If not they are gone within 18-36 months short of God’s Triple “D”–the direct, dramatic, divine intervention of God.
Of course one of the seven choice is to RePlant.
We tend to think of sacred cows associated with “old ways”, but the younger crowd all too often has a big sacred cow… no old ways allowed, no matter what. It all has to be new and their way. This applies across the church spectrum, from worship, to hand outs, to carpet, to iphones… everything.